Trump-Clinton debate seen by record 80.9 million TV viewers - CNN

Some 80.9 million Americans watched the first, raucous, US presidential debate between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump on television, smashing a decades old record for such events, CNN said.

The figure includes the approximately 45 million who watched the 90-minute debate on the four main TV networks, as well as millions more who watched cable channels, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and other smaller outlets, CNN said.

If confirmed, the audience, due to be finalised later on Tuesday, beat the 80.6 million record set by the Jimmy Carter-Ronald Reagan TV presidential debate in 1980 but fell short of the 100 million viewers some analysts had predicted for the face-off.

The annual football Super Bowl attracts more than 100 million viewers, making it the biggest US TV event.

Elon Musk promises 'fun' trip to Mars colony

SpaceX chief executive officer Elon Musk unveiled his plans for establishing a human colony on Mars, using a massive rocket and a fleet of spaceships to achieve a self-sustaining population on the Red Planet this century.

Speaking at the International Astronautical Congress in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara, Musk showed a futuristic video depicting his ideas for an interplanetary transport system based on re-usable rockets, a propellant farm on Mars and 1,000 spaceships on orbit, carrying about 100 people each.

The spacecraft would have a restaurant, cabins, zero-gravity games and movies.

Germany blocks WhatsApp data transfers to Facebook

German data protection authorities said they had blocked Facebook from collecting subscriber data from its subsidiary WhatsApp, citing privacy concerns.

Facebook and WhatsApp promised in the wake of the Silicon Valley giant's 2014 acquisition of the messaging app that they would not share data, Hamburg's Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Johannes Caspar said in a statement.

He added that Facebook would be required to delete any data already received from WhatsApp in Germany. "It has to be (the users') decision whether they want to connect their account with Facebook," Caspar said. "Facebook has to ask for their permission in advance."

Football: Slimani scores again as Leicester beat Porto in Champions League

Leicester City forgot their domestic struggles to secure a second successive Champions League victory as Islam Slimani tormented a familiar foe by grabbing the only goal in a 1-0 win over Porto.

Leicester sit top of Group G with six points after Slimani headed powerfully home from a Riyad Mahrez cross in the first half for his sixth goal in his last four matches against Porto, having joined Leicester from Sporting Lisbon in August.

It was the first time Leicester had tasted Champions League football at home and they came into the game on the back of a 4-1 defeat to Manchester United and a run of poor form in the Premier League, but they looked comfortable throughout against Porto.

The Straits Times

We have been experiencing some problems with subscriber log-ins and apologise for the inconvenience caused. Until we resolve the issues, subscribers need not log in to access ST Digital articles. But a log-in is still required for our PDFs.